Thursday, November 11, 2010

Election Results a week later

How did I do?

I went 50-50. McClung, Kelly and Bielat all lost while Gibson, West and Schilling came through with victories. The money that I have to Bielat was a lottery ticket at best because of the district that he was running in can best be described here by Frank J. of IMAO

"We have people with absolutely no qualifications whatsoever screwing with American businesses and there is no way to stop them because they live in districts where everyone is retarded, like San Francisco or areas of Massachusetts. In a just, capitalistic world, Barney Frank would be living on the streets covered in his own excrement, but instead he gets to screw up business after business with no accountability because apparently he lives in a district where the citizens are constantly being outsmarted by squirrels."

The rest are really frustrating. McClung and Kelly were close, especially McClung who came within a few thousand votes of winning.

Now that I have gotten the sour grapes about MA out in the open, let's review what happened.

The biggest swing in the House in two generations. In a cycle where the seats up for election dictated a defensive strategy the Republicans made gains in the Senate, attaining concrete filibuster with the sweetener of taking home Obama's old seat. Key Governor's races and state legislatures all broke towards the Republican side, which will have long repercussions in redistricting votes and presidential primaries down the road. This is a historic ass kicking which feels somewhat disappointing because there were seats left on the table that could have been won. The Blue Dogs were put to the sword, to the surprise of no one, because they were the embodiment of Obama's politics. When nothing was on the line they would talk about of both sides of their mouths and entertain conservative ideas that their constituents favored, like him running a centrist campaign on a net spending and tax cut. However, when push came to shove, they would toe the line and vote however Pelosi demanded. Good riddance.

In the near term this means that Card Check, Cap and Trade and amnesty for illegals are all off the table. In the long term what it means is that Republicans have another chance that I am not sure if they deserve. I do not think they spent enough time in the wilderness to merit a return to power this quickly. They squandered their authority in the early 00's by expanding government spending and debt with "compassionate conservatism" that was, in reality, Democrat-Lite. The first thing on every mind as they enter the new term of Congress must be that they were sent their to reduce, by any means necessary, the massive government of the country rather than to merely administrate it.

There are tough decisions ahead. Popular programs like college aid, Social Security, Medicare and all sorts of farm and business subsidies are going to have to be cut drastically. Grown up decisions are going to have to be made by politicians who need to talk to us like adults about the realities of the world, rather than mouthing platitudes that belong on bumper stickers while promising us double rainbows and unicorns at no cost to anyone making under 250K.

I do not think that Obama has it in him to tack right like Clinton did in this situation. Choking back vomit, I watched his press conference after the election and it was obvious he still just does not get it. He blamed the losses and backlash not on his policies, but on the fact that he did not communicate clearly how awesome his policies are. Basically, we are not smart enough to understand how lucky we are to have this super awesome Dear Leader ramming policies that are opposed by the majority of the population down our throats. If only he used smaller words, we could comprehend how lucky we are to be living in such a time. His arrogance and condescension know no bounds.

The bottom line is, elections have consequences, and I am going to go get myself a Slurpee and enjoy